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Tell your boss: When U.S. workers stay home, they save 2 billion billion joules per year

Americans are spending more time at home—so much that from 2003 to 2012, U.S. homebodies cut national energy consumption by a whopping 1.8%, according to a new study. Researchers dug into data from an annual government survey that asks 11,000 Americans about their daily schedule—when they eat, where they work, and how they go about their day. The survey revealed that Americans spent eight more days at home per year in 2012 compared with a decade earlier, thanks in large part to an uptick in teleworking, watching movies at home, and online shopping and gaming. That meant Americans were less likely to visit offices, malls, and other nonresidential spots—and spend less time traveling to them. Given how much energy transportation sucks up, the net effect of these lifestyle changes was an annual reduction in energy use of nearly 2 billion billion joules, enough energy to power nearly 50 million homes per year, the team reports today in the journal Joule. So, in addition to wearing your pajamas and playing with your cat, you can add one more item to the list of perks that come with working from home: energy savings.